90 Day Challenge!

I have just started my 90 Day Challenge with ViSalus and I'm so excited to get my health where it should be.  I was a skeptic at first and really didn't want anything to do with the shakes but when I started listening to the testimonies and seeing firsthand from people I know the weight they were loosing, I became a believer. My goal is to fit into my little black dress without looking 3 months pregnant by the end of October and to gain more energy to keep up with my 13 month old.

Tonight I had a shake that tasted like Peach Cobbler. I put two scoops of shake mix, 6 ice cubes, a whole fresh peach and 4 slices of a frozen peach, 1/2 cup of whole milk, 1/2 cup of water, and a couple shakes of cinnamon into my blender and blended it until it was smooth. I'm a girl from the south and I love peach cobbler so this has been my favorite so far! Tomorrow I'm going to try this shake:

Ramblings of a 10-month-old

Little Charle has become such a big girl at only 10 months old.  She’s developing too fast for my taste.  She’s been rambling syllables for several months now and I’m finally getting to where I can understand MOST of what she says.  She still has full conversations with me and I couldn’t tell you a single word she has said. Charle FINALLY SAID MOMA!!!! This past week while my grandmother was visiting she worked with her on saying GG for great-grandma and Charle said it in just 3 days. Then the next day she said Meme (my mom wants to go by Meme instead of grandma) so I knew she really was capable of saying Moma but was refusing and being a stubborn little girl.  Yesterday I put up the gate so she couldn’t get in the kitchen and she got really mad and had one of her normal “I’m not getting my way tantrums” and she hit me and cried Moma.  I was so excited that she said my name that I didn’t even tell her “no” for hitting me.  I’m also surprised she hasn’t started saying no yet because I swear she hears it at least 100 times a day.  My grandmother also was trying to work on Charle waving and saying bye bye but I wanted her to blow kisses and say bye bye.. I WON!! She now puts her hand to her mouth and blows a raspberry then says bye bye.  Proud Moma here..

I have a little organizer on my hands.  Bug likes to take things out of baskets and then turn around and put them right back in.  With the exception of last night, she emptied her toy basket and then just spread everything across the living room.  Baths used to be a breeze and Charle loved them until she was about 5 months old, ever since them it’s a scream fest and she panics if she even sees her bathtub being filled with water.  I switched her from the infant bath to the toddler tub I have which is a blow up duck bathtub that quacks.  She still wasn’t impressed and continued to panic.  She loves pools though so this past Saturday Caitlin and I took her outside in her bathing suit and filled up her duck and put her in it under the tree.  She LOVED it and splashed around for about 30 min.  Charle just loved the splashing part because she climbed out of it twice just to turn around and splash the water with her hands while sitting out of the water.  She had a really messy dinner that night so I had to give her a bath.  While I was filling the tub with water, she had the most pathetic whine and clung to me.  She even started fussing a little once I put her in the water but I showed her she could splash and she lit up in excitement and bath time has been play time since then!

I found this new gadget on a blog in which the person was bashing this and calling parents lazy.. I personally think this is one of the best inventions!!!

The blogger said something about making more of a mess but it has prevented Charle from kicking the bowl of food out of my hand and landing all across the carpet in the living room. I got this blue one for free off of amazon from using  my free giftcards that I earn from using swagbucks.

Whew 8 Months!

Two teeth and eight months later, I still have the best baby girl anyone could dream of.  She sings, talks, plays, crawls and laughs all day.  Charle does have her bad moments when she’s tired and doesn’t want to go to sleep, she then bites, pinches, and slaps (and she slapped baby John when she first met him.)  Last week, I was trying to put her down for a nap and I was singing to her like usual, Charle spit out her paci and started singing with me.  I couldn’t help but laugh at her and then she was so proud of herself that she started giggling back at me. 

I’ve said this numerous times but my child is a holiday baby; she does all of her “firsts” on holidays.  When St. Patrick’s Day came around I was sure she would cut her first tooth, but man was I wrong, she had to wait until four days later on her 8-month birthday to cut her first tooth. She then cut her second tooth exactly 1 week later.  I’ve been saying that I hope she gets multiple teeth at once instead of one every now and then.  Her first one was bad but I didn’t notice her being too terribly upset with the second one.  That could be because both of us had the flu this past week and were too consumed with trying to get better.

Anyone that knows me knows that I am not afraid to spank my child when needed even if it is in public.  There are instances where taking a child to a bathroom or dressing room is needed but I haven’t gotten to that point yet.  I also agree that there are parents who over spank and spank their kids when they get annoyed because their child is just being a kid.  I don’t ever condone that nor will I do that with my children, but when Charle repeatedly pinches hard, yanks my hair hard or bites I do pop her.  Really I just pop her hand and tell her, “no” and she has had a positive reaction to it and stops.  Most times I just have to tell point my finger in her face and say, “no” firmly and she stops what she’s doing then throws her head back and cries at me like I just hurt her.  She has become a little bit of a drama queen when it comes to that.  But I really don’t have to do that much because she is a really good baby.

 Charle started talking around the end of January by saying nonsense syllables.  She started saying, “dada” the weekend before Valentine’s Day; it didn’t help that we were with my boy friend that weekend.  For awhile she was only saying it around him and when I had her all to myself I was able to divert her to saying, “baba” and “glagla” but she is now saying it to me on a daily basis, bummer.  I was sooo close to getting her to say, “mama” and then she gave in to that “d” word.  Her first word really would have to be kitty cat, she really says it like, “kika,” but she says it when the cats come near her so she knows what she’s talking about.  I am proud to say that Charle is now a regular chatterbox.

 I’m one of those weird people that don’t like medicine and would rather take natural remedies before I take any medicine.  I have started doing this with Charle too.  I give her Tylenol when she needs it but I try other things for her pain first.  12-20 dark cherries help with pain the same way an ibuprofen does.  Also mint leaves help with pain so when she’s being fussy and chewing on stuff, I give her a handful of dried cherries to eat and muddle up mint in her apple juice.  She seems to like it and from what I’ve noticed, it helps her out.  If anything, it’s not hurting her and if she gets a fever, I just convert to giving her that Tylenol.



She's Growing Up Too Fast

I know I’ve been MIA for the past couple months or so but I’mmm baaack! Little Miss Charle will be 6 months this Saturday. 6 MONTHS!!!! Wow, I’m in disbelief. She is my crowned jewel, my most prized possession and what Charle wants, Charle gets.  In the past I have always frowned upon parents who spoiled their kids but I must admit that I have become one of them.  I have stopped the sleeping my bed issue; it wasn’t that hard to break actually.

Charle is growing up too fast. I know every parent says that about his or her children and it is such a cliché but it is without a doubt true.  Charle figured out how to roll over completely on Thanksgiving.  She was amazed at the fact she could now get away from me while I tried to dress her and put diapers back on her.  She is too much like me in the fact that she hates clothes and SOCKS.  The novelty has worn off and it has become a little bit easier to dress her again, now she just screams at me and I prefer that to rolling.   The week after Thanksgiving, Charle found her feet and ever since then, feeding time has become let’s make Charle’s socks as nasty as possible time.  The very next week, Charle learned how to laugh and hold her bottle.  This morning Charle and I sat and laughed at each other for a good fifteen minutes.  I wouldn’t trade anything for those moments with her.  I also finally figured out where she got this squeal noise that she makes from.  When I’m playing with her and I say, “Yeah” I make a squeal noise on the “ah” part.  She was mimicking me after every time that I did it this morning and then we would giggle about it until she would squeal again. 

Thinking back to three months ago, Charle couldn’t and wouldn’t do much but cry and scream at me all the time.  Now she plays and is discovering all sorts of new things.  She figured out how to put her paci back in her mouth finally (THANK YOU JESUS!)  I have been waiting for this moment for a long time now.  She only gets mad in the car now when she loses it or is just annoyed about being in her seat.  Charle is working on crawling now and I’m secretly sabotaging it by holding her more and putting her in her bouncy chair so that I can have a little more time before I have to chase her around the house and Church.  I’m not one of those moms that will get offended if my child isn’t walking by one… now if she isn’t walking by two, I’ll be concerned.

The only thing that Charle is behind developmentally is her growth and weight gain.  She has only gained 3.5 lbs since birth and this stumps her Dr. She gained 10oz in the past 3 weeks but he told me this morning that he’s not happy with that and it needs to be more.  Her Cardiologist told me last Thursday that I will be seeing the inside of Dr. offices a lot for the next couple months until they figure out what is going on.  Malabsorption was ruled out this morning, Praise Jesus, because her bowel movements are not complete liquid.  Also it has been ruled out that her heart could be causing this.  Now they are looking to see if she is getting enough calories from my milk and that is why they want me to eat 1000 more calories a day instead of just 500 like most nursing mothers.  I know my child eats and eats so part of me isn’t too concerned about her weight.  I feel that all babies grow at their own pace and there have been some small babies in my family that grew up to be just as normal and healthy as every one else.

Hopefully I will start keeping up with this thing again.  Here are some precious pictures of Charle from the past couple of months:

3 months old

4 months old

5 months old

Quick update

I'm going to be real short with this one but here is the update on the past month.

Charle is starting to explore and notice things now.  Mrs. Amy told me that she noticed that once all of her babies turned two months, things started settling down.. Charle fit pretty well into that curve.  I can actually put her in her bouncy seat for about 30 minutes at a time now and she won't scream her head off the entire time.  She likes to play with the toys on it now and look in her mirror.  Charle's also blowing bubbles galore.  She loves to smile now and interact with people instead of just looking at them.  Her swing isn't as much of a miracle worker as it was when my neighbor first gave it to me but most of the time, it still calms her or puts her to sleep.  Little bug is growing and is almost into diaper size 2!  I can't believe how big she's gotten in just this short amount of time.  She will be three months next Friday!! Charle still sleeps through the night (YAY!!!) and this week I took her off of formula completely. I'm so excited to have her back on full breast milk after two long months of adding formula.  The original concerns were that she was not gaining enough weight and that she wasn't getting any iron from me since I rarely eat red meat.  She's gaining weight rapidly so that's no longer a concern and this formula was giving her too much iron which made her majorly constipated and I'm sick of her not pooping for 6-8 days at a time and screaming in pain all the time. There is no reason a baby should have to be in pain 24/7 and be scared of pooping.  So I made the executive decision to take her off of it and just give her my milk (it's been working out pretty well so far.)  We are still working on the pooping part.. She's so backed up that she still won't poop without a suppository even though she's had nothing but breast milk since Monday. 

My Mom's parents are coming up from Florida to meet Charle for the first time tomorrow!  I haven't seen them in two years and I'm excited.  They are my redhead grandparents and they are quite a pill but as I'm getting older, I'm realizing that I'm just like them.  They aggravate the mess out of everyone with their personalities but I have the same one.. I just know when to keep my mouth shut but they are getting pretty old so I think they shouldn't have to sensor their opinions.. they've earned the right to just say what they want.

Here are some updated pictures of my Princess

These were all done by Abby Lee Photography.  I can't brag enough about how wonderful of a person and a photographer she is! Go check out her fb page.  We have another session this coming Friday for her 3 month pictures and her Hallelujah Night outfit.  I can't wait!!!!

 

Two weeks later..

I've been fussed at recently for not updating this thing often enough... SORRY.  When I started this blog, I really didn't expect many people to read it or to care but I get in trouble when I don't write a blog for awhile now (it secretly makes me feel special.)  Well update on life.. I was offered a job the day Charle turned 6 weeks and of course I accepted it.  I absolutely LOVE my job and wouldn't trade it for any other.  Charle also started daycare this week; she only went to daycare Wednesday and Thursday though.  She seemed to do alright but since Wednesday morning, she has refused to poop and she is in some serious pain right now.  Wednesday was the first day she was without me or my family all day and she wasn't too thrilled about it but she's gonna have to get used to it. I think she knew that I was starting work this week and needed sleep because Sunday-Tuesday night she only got up at 4am to eat and since Wednesday night, she has slept ALLLLL night!!!!!!!!!  I was so exhausted this morning that when she got up to feed, I just let her go back to sleep with me in my bed (I also wanted some Charle/Mommy time too.)
As some of you may know, I love to cook and experiment with new recipes or just create my own.  Today, I decided to take on enchiladas.. I would post a picture of them but there are no more left- I guess they were good.  I made chicken last night so I used the leftovers for the filling along with a clove of garlic, a shallot and some cheddar cheese.  Then of course I used enchilada sauce (red and green chili) and put lots of different kinds of cheeses on top.  If y'all don't know this already, learn it, I LOVE CHEESE!! I like every kind that I have tried so far except ricotta (I can't stand ricotta, I substitute cottage cheese in for ricotta in all my cooking.)  I don't really have time to cook anything fun during the week so I enjoyed being able to take several hours to cook today.
I need to get some pictures of Charle this week.. She was dedicated this past Sunday and I had someone take a video of it.  I was going to get stills from the video but for some reason my memory card wants to be a turkey and it decided to show an error reading for this video.  So I have no pictures from her dedication and no video.  I guess I will cheat and put her in her dedication outfit to get some pictures of it this weekend.

Frogs and Princes

My Charle bug and I have had some interesting past couple of days.  Yesterday we had a very special visitor.. I've been waiting on this person to get his stuff together and come visit for a very long time.  I'm not going to post who it is, those of you know know who it is.. don't fuss at me (no it's not my soon to be ex husband.)  I promised him that I wouldn't post the picture of him holding Charleston on Facebook but I didn't say anything about my blog.. sneaky sneaky ;)

So here he is

He was petrified of her the entire time.  Most guys are scared of babies though.. I'm more fragile than she is so I don't get it.  She was mesmerized by him the entire time he held her (I guess she thinks he looks funny.)  I was secretly super excited that he came over and sad when he left but I tried not to act like it because of our circumstances.

Moving on.. Today my sister came over and helped me with my sanity by keeping Charle calm.  I let her feed her and take care of her while I had some time to just breathe and not worry about every little thing.  We ended up going to Cracker Barrel for lunch and stayed for two hours.  I honestly enjoy spending more time with my sister now that we don't live together and the fact that I don't get out much or see anyone except at church.  I told her today that I am surprised at how well she does with Charle and she takes care of her better than I thought she would.  I'm just so stinkin' proud of her.

Here are some pictures from today

I had to get a picture of one her her tantrums!